The Shape of Time

I was slightly confused when reading The Shape of Time article. I am not sure for what reason that was, I just feel like the way the writer was talking was not making much sense to me. But overall the writer was talking about how important timing is in an artist’s career. He talked about a lot of different points off of that one, but that being the over arching theme. The one the really shocked me the most was when he started talking about how talent was even that important to an artist, as timing is because is you are an artist during this “bad” entry time period then you will have no shot, regardless of how good you are. This was just kind of mind blowing to me because I was trying to compare this to other aspects of life and if you were to say that about athletes, for example, it would be a crazy situation. It would be saying that if you were born in a “bad” year for the sport then no matter how good you get and how hard you work at that sport; you will never be good enough to make it big time. This just seemed like an unreasonable thing to say because if you are that good at something, I think you will be bale to make it. I am not saying that timing does not matter, however. Timing is a very important aspect in just about everything. I know that with recruiting for sports, if you are a specific position and the team does not need that specific position for your year, they wont even look at you, so in that sense, timing is a huge part of what you are trying to do.

            I could not understand the Biological and Physical Metaphor section of the writing. I just could not follow what the writer was trying to say by any means. I did not understand how this section even really related to the rest of the article so far. The it started talking about the “history of things” and how depending on the things you pick, they will reunite ideas and come together.

            In the Scientists and Artists section, it started that there is nothing to learn from artists studying/pursuing different specialties and the same for biologists and chemists in different sections. I disagree with this. I think that there is a lot to be learned from people doing things that are not exactly the same as you are. There is always something that you can learn from someone else’s experiences. For example, in volleyball, I am constantly learning things from people who are not in my position (or specialty), and for this reason I am a better player. I think that if artists did this, rather than secluding themselves, they would be a better and more well rounded artist in the end. Sticking to one thing is very tough and I do not think it is the best way to go, you should always try to be a well rounded person, regardless of what you are doing.